We hear it so much it’s become cliché by now – we live in a “global society” with a “global economy” and a “global marketplace” that is at everyone’s fingertips via the Internet.

But in reality, it’s the ‘big guys’ who are participating globally (and reaping the benefits). Small business owners are, for the most part, on the outside looking in and wanting to grab a piece of the global pie, but not knowing how to make that happen.

Enter PayPal, a company that loves to analyze the problems of small business owners and come up with solutions. Their latest mission is to help enable small business owners to tap into global sales and expand their profit potential. To do that they have launched a new service called PassPort. PassPort is a website that is waiting to make your global dreams come true.

Put simply, the website is there to provide tools that will educate and empower small business owners. These are free tools that can tell you when and how to reach customers from countries around the world.

In regards to when, the website has country-specific information about sales and traditions. This includes:

Seasonal sale peaks

Holidays

Events

Cultural customs

Taboos

Trends

Buying patterns

Gift-giving traditions

As a business owner, you already understand the importance of when to capture sales in the United States. Merchants, big and small, all get ready for holidays and events like Black Friday, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. They do this by rolling out promotions, sales and deals that will bring customers in. Now PassPort by PayPal will allow you to do this for specific holidays and events all around the world.

Take Singles Day for example. Never heard of it? That’s because it’s a Chinese holiday. And it’s a huge retail event that makes Black Friday seem like a regular shopping day. Singles Day is every November 11th (11/11, get it?). It started out as an obscure holiday that is kind of like Valentine’s Day in reverse. It’s a day when you celebrate being single by buying something great for yourself.

Down the line this holiday grew and of course everybody – not only singles – wanted a day to spoil themselves. So now it’s a holiday that everyone, regardless of relationship status, participates in. And when we say huge we’re talking $8.2 billion USD in sales in 2013, with a projected $10 billion USD expected for 2014. All in a 24 hour period.

Don’t you want a piece of that pie? PayPal’s PassPort makes it possible.

It’s not just about Singles Day either. Countries all over the world have special holidays and events that you can tap into (like Golden Week in Japan and Click Frenzy in Australia). Check out this exclusive video with Anuj Nayar, Senior Director of Global Initiatives at Paypal, who discusses other global opportunities for small business owners:

The PayPal PassPort website can also help you with how to sell globally, which is definitely a major hurdle facing small business owners. In terms of how, the website can help you with:

Shipping and distribution logistics

Currency exchange and fees

Customs procedures

Taxes

And plenty more too. You can start selling quickly via direct links to eBay Marketplace tools, arguably the fastest and easiest way to start selling internationally. Plus, the website has case studies and best practices that help you learn how peers have succeeded in the global market so you can to.

If there’s one thing PayPal understands, it’s definitely this “global marketplace” that small business owners hear so much about but that many haven’t really participated in yet. There are 148 million global active PayPal accounts, in 193 markets and 26 different currencies. In addition, 25% of PayPal’s global Total Payment Volume came from global trade last year.

With PassPort, PayPal is helping small businesses tap into the global market too.

By 2018 global trade is expected to grow exponentially in key markets such as the US, the UK, Germany, Brazil, China and Australia. PassPort is a way for American small business owners to be ahead of the curve.

SmallBizTechnology.com is part of the Small Business Trends Publisher Channel, and is all about helping “regular” small business owners – those who are not technically savvy – know what technology they need to boost productivity, save time, save money, increase revenue and boost customer service in their business.

6 Reactions

Really nice idea. I like the way PayPal is concerned about small businesses. I know that they are already helping a lot of online businesses. This just makes it better as they are now also crossing cultures.

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